Grimshaw Talc Mine

[Kurt Harrigan]

The remaining head frame of the Grimshaw Mine under moonlight. This was a long night for me watching the few folks heading back to their camps knowing I would be busy for the next couple of hours as the light came down and the moon moved into position. 42 minutes for the star trails and plenty of trial and error for the light painting. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[AlanLichty]

Pretty cool shot. I might be tempted to dial back the head frame just a bit to better match the illumination of the rest of the mine debris.

 

[Kurt Harrigan]

Pretty cool shot. I might be tempted to dial back the head frame just a bit to better match the illumination of the rest of the mine debris.

Thanks, Alan. I was thinking along the same lines.....

 

[Ben Egbert]

Good job Kurt. I agree with Alan on the head frame

 

[JimFox]

Hey Kurt!

First off, let me say that I really like this. Perfect framing for the star trails. And using the old mining equipment for the ground layer is perfect. I think you have just the right amount of time for the star trails.

I would actually darken the whole ground layer. In Photoshop, try the highlight slider of the highlight/shadow recovery tool first. They have really got that working nicely, and it's to where it's not as obvious usually. That should darken the ground up some and could pull out a little more color from the star trails.

I really like this, and would love to see the edit of this.

 

[Kurt Harrigan]

Hey Kurt!

First off, let me say that I really like this. Perfect framing for the star trails. And using the old mining equipment for the ground layer is perfect. I think you have just the right amount of time for the star trails.

I would actually darken the whole ground layer. In Photoshop, try the highlight slider of the highlight/shadow recovery tool first. They have really got that working nicely, and it's to where it's not as obvious usually. That should darken the ground up some and could pull out a little more color from the star trails.

I really like this, and would love to see the edit of this.

Thanks, Jim. I'll give that a try and see what happens.

 

[Kurt Harrigan]

 

[Kurt Harrigan]

Here is a version with the suggested edits.

 

[AlanLichty]

I like the edit.

 

[Ben Egbert]

I also like the edit

 

[Kurt Harrigan]

I like the edit.

Seems a little too red for my taste. I think I'll try to back it off and try once more.

 

[Kurt Harrigan]

I also like the edit

I think it looks better but it's still not quite right. I'm going to try another one.

 

[Kurt Harrigan]

I like the edit.

One issue was my light painting was too direct due to the terrain I was one. I was very difficult to get some side lighting to enhance the shadows.

 

[Kurt Harrigan]

 

[Kurt Harrigan]

Here I tried to balance out the luminosity and overall color balance in the image. I think it looks better.

 

[Kurt Harrigan]

Thanks for everyone's input. Unfortunately, I discovered that I forgot to run my noise reduction when doing the star trails. Right now I'm back to square one but will take everyone's advice and try for a cleaner, more balanced image.

 

[JimFox]

Hey Kurt!

I like where you are heading with the edit, it looks nicer.

What settings were you shooting the star trails at? With my camera's I might need to run some noise reduction on the ground layer, but I almost never run it on the sky portion. I think the sky because it's brighter tends not to be as noisy as the ground which is darker and can have more shadows and noise. What camera are you using?